Thursday, May 26, 2005

EU grant package for Northern Ireland food sector

Agriculture minister Jeff Rooker has announced details of a £2.79m (US$5.1m) EU award package for the Northern Ireland food-processing sector. The awards, totalling £2.44 million from EU funds and £0.35 million from Invest NI national funds, assist eight projects submitted by Northern Ireland food companies under the EU Agricultural Processing and Marketing Grant Scheme. The scheme is designed to improve the economic performance and international competitiveness of the food processing sector. The story says that these projects are estimated to create a further 91 new jobs and should safeguard existing jobs as the project applicants currently employ a cumulative total of 1,680 staff.More here